After 1-hour full of fun and excitement, we left the Ratel hide and went up Roodewal Road (S39) and just some minutes later, we were astonished to find the same elephant bathing again in the Timbavati River, just besides some Hippos. This time, however, the Hippos were not bothered by him.

It was so nice to photograph him again bathing, lying by the side as the pic below shows.

After bathing on the side for a while, he took some time splashing water around.

And then he went down on the other side for some more bathing. What a scene to see twice in the same day, in fact just some minutes apart, from such an intimate position! In both cases we were the only ones, in the hide, and no other car in the road at the occasion.

And then he raised the body in the air, clearly showing what magnificent animal was that!

He raised completely and went away to the margin.

He stopped to eat, allowing a nice close of the trunk's ability.

Finally, a nice pic of the elephant in the surroundings, I think it is a beautiful scene.

We then followed Roodewal Road. And it was really elephant day. We found a group of females with small elephants, some looking newborns. They were at first in the open field and then went under the trees. In this first pic, we can also see a Fork-Tailed Drongo.

Here we can see then under the trees, protecting themselves from the sun.

A caring mother with two small elephants. One of them so small that seemed to have been born not long time ago. See it in detail in the cropped pic.

I like this pic of the group in a luxurious savana.

After enjoying staying with this group for a while, we followed Roodewal Road up to a corner in which the road was quite narrow. There under a tree, also hiding from the sun, there were two big elephants.

A closer look at one of them.

Then one of the elephants moved towards the car. I told my friend Pedro to go, since he was driving. You know how we can get nervous in those situations... He inadvertently let the car die... The elephant didn't like it and emitted those big blowing sounds they are famous for... Gosh, you can fill that sound entering through your belly, while shivers go down your spine... That was frightening. Pure fear... Pedro managed to turn on the car and thankfully we went on, while leaving the elephants behind... We were also lucky they did not block the road. It was really narrow at that point....

Here is the pic my wife took in the exact moment the elephant made the sound. The proof of how scared she was. She was so terrified and started crying immediately after we left the scene. It took a good while to calm her down... In fact this only happened when we reached Oliphants.

As nothing more serious happened, in the end Roodewal Road gave us an unforgettable half day, with a lot of elephant stories to tell to our daughter.... from twice seeing a bathing elephant, to newborns, to be frightened to death by one of them!

Hi Hilda, Carol, and Pumba,It was, as I said, elephant day... After the event with the elephant which almost attacked us, my wife was completely against going up to Shingwedzi, where they are known to attack cars....

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